Demos:
Corrections:
Space Flight Simulated -
Simulations are an exciting way to explore our world (and space) around us. The idea to create a space flight simulator originated in a request by an after school science teacher. The idea he had was translated into a recent challenge on the Liberty Basic Conforums site [http://libertybasic.conforums.com].
Here is the basic request:
Hello My name is David Norris and I was searching the internet for a program for an after school science class I teach for 7 to 10 yr olds.
I do not know how to program. I would like a program that would allow you to start from the planet earth and you can choose any planet in our solor system to travel to. You must also have an option to select the speed in which you wish to travel to these planets. On screen it would display the miles traveled, miles left or both according to the speed your going. Graphics are not important. Of course anything relevent you want to add would be great.
Is anyone up for this? I know it is a project that would take your valuable time but I assure you it will be a valuable tool for my lessons. I would like the students to get a real time feel to how long it would take to travel to these places.
If you must know what speeds to use I would like a choice of 15,000 MPH, 40,000 MPH , 100,000 MPH or light speed 186,000 miles per second or anything you would like to add.
at the end of the program if possible it would display the time it took to get there.
Here is a list of the planets (even if you only want to do one planet)
Mercury 57,000,000 miles from earth
Venus 26,000,000 miles from earth
Mars 35,000,000 miles from earth
Jupitor 370,000,000 miles from earth
Pluto 2,067,000,000 miles from earth
Uranus 1,607,000,000 miles from earth
Saturn 744,000,000 miles from earth
neptune 2,680,000,000 miles from earth
Proxima Centauri (closest star besides the sun) 4.2 light yrs
By letting this program run in real time (possibly day after day) it will give the children an appreciation of the vastness of space and the great distance of these planets.
Thank you so much for your time.
There were seven programs submitted, all with a wide range of interpretation and implementation. I have included four of the programs in zip file format in the files section of the newsletter. You must download the newsletter to get the attachments.
The programs included are:
For those who are interested in developing their own space flight simulations or games, there is an excellent resource available on line (that Janet pointed out) for more information on our solar neighbors. [http://www.nineplanets.org]
Thanks everyone for a fun adventure!